Baek Minkyung

🇰🇷 Baek Minkyung

🧬 From Chemistry PhD to AI Protein Pioneer: Baek Minkyung, Assistant Professor at Seoul National University, co-developed RoseTTAFold, an AI model for predicting 3D protein structures that is now used in research, drug development, and vaccine design. She has now received the APEC ASPIRE Prize and was chosen by all 21 APEC economies as the top researcher under 40. Her team is expanding methods from single proteins to multi-complexes and working on AI-assisted design of interaction modulators.

👉 Lesson learned: In AI life sciences, depth and data quality are key. A clear biological question as the foundation, curated and high-quality datasets, consistent laboratory validation, and openness in sharing models and tools are the levers to turn smart algorithms into reliable approaches for real therapies.